Morality

On Morality

This is a work in progress. I am jotting down some ideas about morality which had been percolating in my head for a long time, but I didn't have the impetus to write them down until today when I came across further reactions to Ross Douthat's piece in New York Times that appeared a few days before Christmas 2013 in which he asserted that morality had no foundation without the presence of "God". Reading the comments of others to Douthat's piece drove home one thing very clear to me: my English has a long way to way before it can achieve the kind of elegance and articulateness rivaling that of the commentators. Anyway, I am still soldiering on in expounding my thoughts on this seemingly intractable issue of morality:

Yesterday, I had a conversation with a fellow (financial) hunter about the homeless people who have recently appeared to be more desperate and thus brazen. I told him that I felt sorry for these defeated folks and that I occasionally gave the most wretched-looking of them some change, especially if they were elderly. Dave ( the financial hunter) snorted and said that he would never give them any money. He would only help his loved ones and kinsmen, but not strangers. Strangers were on their own, he added. He owed them nothing. I was silent to his rejoinder, but inside me I felt sad for him because apparently something was missing inside him.

The plight and the appearance of the homeless affects me deeply even though I see them everyday on the way to work and back from work. I have an irrational fear that I would one day end up like them although that scenario would be extremely unlikely because I have been telling myself that I would kill myself if I ever get destitute. I also shared that fear with Dave. He simply looked at me and flatly said, "Roberto, you'd be surprised people would do anything to survive, even if that means eating bugs and robbing and killing others for food." Since Dave was a white American, I assumed he was a Christian. Briefly passed through my head was how Dave's view fit in with Douthat's Christian ethos about morality. 

In my humble opinion, as humans we sooner or later developed some basic, fundamental views about three things:

1. Metaphysics: where are we from? What's the meaning of our existence?

Is there a God? 

2. Epistemology: how do I know what I think is correct and right and logical? 

3. Ethics: is my behavior good or bad? 

Our views about these three things were taught/transmitted to us by parents, the church, friends, and the society (nurture and environment) or we arrived at them by our own efforts (nature) or the combination of nurture and nature. As much as religions try to teach their followers an ethical system to abide by (thou shall not steal, commit adultery, kill unless in self-defense, etc... ), humans rely more on empathy and the golden rule: "do unto others what we expect others do to us.", assuming the individuals don't have physical impairment in their brains or deleterious environment that result in an inability to have empathy as in the case of sociopaths. Evolutionary psychology may muddle the water by throwing in some esoteric concepts (pride, ego, altruism) to explain human morality, but I firmly believe that our ethical behavior is rooted more in our drive for survival and in our lived experiences  than what was taught to us by our parents and our church. 

By the way, in my view, patriotism is very much part of the ethical make-up of an individual. I used to be extremely surprised and upset at one individual who flat out told me that he didn't care for Vietnam anymore because he is living in the U. S. and that he is now an American. Vietnam is just a distant, unpleasant memory for him, and he does not care if China takes over Vietnam. I was surprised and upset at the guy because I was suffering from self-projection. Now I know not everybody thinks and feels as I do. I now accept his attitude, but I, of course, do not respect him because his attitude is redolent with selfishness to the extreme. Such an individual would surely kill me without hesitation if I am an inconvenience or hindrance to his survival. He would never regard me as a fellow Vietnamese compatriot and thus deserves some soft treatment or at least some early warnings. To some humans, survival is everything, and their whole edifice of ethics is built on that foundation. To other humans, love, patriotism, sacrifice, compassion, gratitude do mean a great deal and thus influence their behavior. 

In case you are wondering, my ethics is simplistic to the extreme: I do unto others what they do to me. If you have shown me kindness, compassion, and understanding, I will never betray you. I will never stab you in the back. I will find ways to pay my emotional debts  and gratitude. On the other hand, if you have mistreated me, I would bid my time and I will come after you with wrath and vengeance. I am trying to take in the concept of forgiveness, but it is tough going for me. 

Wissai

January 15, 2014